from American Standard Time

“These are the kinds of things that come up when you start talking to Melanie Beth Curran. Reinforcing the idea of music as an indispensable salve of conscience. Of course, Melanie is one step ahead. Western Female is her vehicle for some self realization, too. A woman free to be whatever form western female-ness takes when she wakes up. The most subversive act (simple as country music) is just being yourself. Bounding from genre, to style, to method, to medium in a stream of consciousness in real time. Cementing my theory of her work as new Hollywood cinema, Italian realism, and French new wave on a country record. She’s Vargas, Fellini, Lou Reed, Cindy Sherman, and Hank Williams all at once. In the future, genre, cynicism, strictures of the patriarchy, can not hold down the Western Female.”

from The Kitsap Sun

“She describes Western Female, the title of which arose from a newsletter she published during her studies at The New School, as a survey of the role of the female performer, with her playing many roles and performing a mix of original material and traditional tunes.

"You should feel like you've been taken on a tour of America," Curran said of the show.

"It's very much like storytelling, a lot of spoken-word," she added. "I tested it out in New York, to see how it would be to sit alone on a stage and entertain while not being the most virtuosic musician." The music touches Americana, old-time, honky-tonk, croon, jazz, French chanson and rock 'n roll.”

“[Hot Sauce in Kitsap County] is like a warped travelogue/time capsule of Curran's experiences, starting just across the Agate Pass Bridge from her Bainbridge Home ("RIP 305 Park and Ride") and ending in Seattle with a haunting brace of songs — one about life on Capitol Hill ("Capitol Hill Is Hell") and the other a spoken-word, personalized "History of Seattle," contrasting neighborhoods of two decades ago to a present of "skyscrapers and highrises you don't even remember."“

from The Bainbridge Review

“…absurdity is a creative state.

“I think if you’re too attached to, ‘I’m going to make a really good piece of art,’ if you put too much thought and too much into it, it kind of comes out as anxious music,” the performer explained. “You have to be willing to be weird and let go and see what happens. Sometimes, you just dribble something out or put it on the internet or make a song about it and it’s the thing people respond to the most because it has no pretense.””